De Arte Chimica (On Alchemy) (EAN: 978887252-337-7)

Printed in 1572 by Pietro Perna in the collection entitled Auriferæ artis, quam chemiam vocant, antiquissimi authores, the anonymous De arte chimica was attributed by Renaissance alchemists to the Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino, doubtless because it resumes the Ficinian doctrine according to which the elixir or philosophers’ stone is obtained by extracting the spiritus mundi (i.e. the vehicle of the world soul) from gold. But whereas (as P. O. Kristeller has demonstrated) this attribution to Ficino is erroneous, Sylvain Matton has uncovered a number of clues which have led him to impute the treatise to the famous Henry Cornelius Agrippa. Moreover, Matton’s discovery that in 1606 the Paracelsian Martin Ruland reissued (under the title ????????? lapidis philosophici nova) the same De arte chimica from a copy independent of Perna’s printed version, has allowed him to produce a critical edition of a work admired by many alchemical adepts and which furnished C. G. Jung with matter for his analytical psychology.

Autore: Agrippa Henry Cornelius

Collana Travaux et textes de Chrysopœia 14

Pagine 112

Anno di pubblicazione 2014

Lingua English / Latin

Codice libro 2626